My Tips and Tutorials

All quilters develop their own shortcuts, or tricks or have favourite tools to help when they are creating.

When I started getting busy and accumulating so many UFOs in my To Be Quilted pile, I just started putting the flimsies in a bin. A few months ago I was at the studio and pulled out a flimsy from one of the bins to put it on the longarm. Once I had it pressed I went back to the bin to get the backing fabric. Can you guess? Right, it wasn’t there.

I stopped what I was doing and pulled out my bins of flimsies. I took everything out of the bins and double checked that each flimsy had its backing fabric and binding folded inside the quilt top. Any that didn’t have them were put aside to get that problem sorted out. There were also a couple of flimsies that I thought I might make larger. They had the coordinating border fabrics tucked inside the tops in case I did decide to enlarge them.

As each quilt went back in the bin it now has everything needed to finish it except the thread. Luckily I had taken a bin of backing fabrics with me to the studio that trip.

I’ve learned that organization is the one thing I need to focus on with having my longarm so far from home. Now when I do get to spend time at the studio, all I have to do is decide which quilt to finish and give everything a good press and I’m good to go. 😉

Once I have the binding hand sewn on the quilt, I trim my leftovers and have a special storage for them. It works well to know where those leftovers are if I just need a small binding or choose to make a scrappy binding. I’ve also been known to take out bindings to trim down if it was the “perfect” fabric for a few needed 2 1/2” squares. 😄

My other tip came about when I was marking a quilting design on a quilt. I used some of the water soluble markers. After I finished it on the longarm, I tried to get rid of the marks. They didn’t come out. It took water, heat and then once I had the binding on the top, several trips through the washing machine to get the marking out.

I’ve now gone back to my tried and true methods for planning a quilt design. I use the chalk markers but often have to redraw the design. My absolute favourite tip is the funniest. You know those little slivers of hand soap when your bars are almost done? They make the best quilt markers ever. You can wipe it off with a damp cloth but it stays longer than chalk. If any of the soap gets left on it comes out the first time you wash the quilt and doesn’t leave any residue or marks.

Thanks for spending some time with me. I enjoy reading and responding to your comments. 😄. Carol

Linking with Kathleen McMusing @ Tips and Tutorials on the 22nd